Impact of ANCSA in the Arctic Slope
Taking Control: Fact or Fiction?
A curriculum unit plan by Pat Aamodt

Unit Reading:
Taking Control - The Story of Self Determination in the Arctic by Bill Hess
North Slope Borough, 1993

Message to Students of the North Slope Borough from Mayor Jeslie Kaleak

Although it happened many years ago, before any of you were even born, I remember well a certain day in the late summer of 1967. On this day, for the first time in my life, I was pulled from my family and community, put on an airplane and sent to a place 3,000 miles away from my Barrow home.

I would spend nine months of each of the next three years attending boarding school in Chemawa, Oregon. I remember how homesick I felt, especially for the first three months. For the first time in my life, I would miss the great community feasts which our people share together each Christmas and Thanksgiving. As my relatives and friends back in Barrow gathered together over shares of whale, caribou, geese and frozen fish, I would sit down to a table to eat cafeteria food. I would miss the winter Eskimo games, and the spring festival. When the crews ventured out onto the spring ice to cut trail and to get ready to hunt the bowhead whale, I could not join them.

During all of this time, I would be far from my family.

Still, I was not alone. Many of your parents experienced the same type of thing. In those days, any Inupiat student who wanted to get a high school education had to travel far; if not to Chemawa, then perhaps to Mount Edgecumbe or another boarding school far from the Arctic. Our parents and grandparents knew that many changes were coming to our land, and that we needed education if we ever hoped to deal with these changes. We did learn. At Chemawa, we were exposed to many things we had never seen before. We learned to live in a structured society, where there was a certain time for everything. We had work details to perform such as floors to mop, and dishes to wash. If we got lazy, then our free time was taken from us. No movies, no dances, no recreation.

We learned how the western world worked.

It was a good education. It was knowledge we needed to learn.

Yet, our leaders, the very same people who encouraged us to get this education, also realized there were other things we had to learn, subjects we could study only at home. You can't learn how to catch a bowhead whale in Chemawa, Oregon, no matter how good your teachers are.

Even as I attended my classes, these leaders were hard at work fighting for the land and rights of the lnupiat people. Out of this fight came many things - land claims, regional and village corporations, and, of course, the North Slope Borough. This is why students today have fine schools to attend in each village. This is why all of you have the opportunity to graduate from high school right in your own village, with your family and all of your friends watching.

Our people are fortunate to have leaders who foresaw the need to form the North Slope Borough. This Borough provided the self-government needed to better the lifestyle of the Inupiat people on the North Slope. Out of this government have come not only schools to the 12th grade in every village, but housing, medical clinics. fire protection, and municipal services. Self government has given us the power we need to protect our culture, and our priceless animals and land from threats which could have taken them from us.

This gift given to us from our past and present leaders is something we all should treasure in our hearts. Without the involvement of these leaders, we would still be living in third world conditions today.

Although the whole history of the North Slope Borough is too large to compress into so small a book as this, I hope this will help you gain a better understanding of how the good things available to you every day came to be. It has been a hard struggle, with rough times along the way. Many challenges lie ahead of us. It will take commitment, courage, education, and hard work on your part to meet the challenges the people of the Arctic will face in the future.

So, study hard. Learn your book work well, but please, take the time to listen to the Elders. Venture out onto the ice and tundra, to learn the ways of the animals, and how to hunt.

We will need your help in the future.

Mayor Jeslie Kaleak, Sr.

How It Was Back Then

Life had few comforts, children had to go far to attend school, and, out in the country, people from distant places were coming in to do whatever they wanted, and to claim the ancient wealth of the Inupiat homeland for themselves.

Young people living within the North Slope Borough today might not realize just what an amazing place their homeland truly is. Here, the ancient and the modern blend together in a way that is unparalleled anywhere else in the country. Here, hunters paddle after bowhead whales in umiaqs (ugruk covered skin boats) just as their ancestors did centuries ago. To feed their families, they also stalk caribou, hunt walrus and seal, and harvest a small number of the millions of ducks and geese that return to Arctic waters and wetlands each summer.

To Native Americans living outside of Alaska, this kind of lifestyle has been forever lost.

Yet, students on the North Slope also expect to wake up each morning in a warm house, turn on a tap and get water. If their homes are not part of the Barrow utilidor system, they benefit from daily water delivery and sewage pick-up services. They climb into warm buses and venture off to schools which are as fine as any in the country. There, they learn academic skills, work with computers, television equipment, swim in heated pools when it is 40 below outside, and hold conferences with fellow students living in villages hundreds of miles away. Thanks to the wonder of compressed video, they not only talk to these distant friends, they see them as well. In the evening and on weekends, athletes engage in vigorous games of basketball and volleyball, staged in spacious gymnasiums.

They board airplanes, then travel to the other villages, and to Anchorage and Fairbanks, to compete against the best ball players, runners, and wrestlers from throughout Rural Alaska.

If they or their family members fall ill, staff at clean, well equipped clinics are nearby to give them care; if they need treatment beyond the capabilities of the clinic, there are fast aircraft ready to land on large, constantly maintained airports to rush them to doctor and hospital facilities in Barrow or even to Fairbanks or Anchorage.

Trucks and cars of all makes traverse the fine roads which lace every village. Dirty clothes can be taken to village washeterias, to be cleaned at a reasonable price. Each North Slope community benefits from a strong cash economy, which creates many permanent and temporary jobs. There is money to buy snow- machines, clothing, toys, bicycles, television sets, video players, cable tv subscriptions, and a wide variety of foods to supplement the traditional diet.

Among all these things, none are more important to the young people than are the schools. Most students take it for granted that they can go through all 12 grades without ever leaving home. In these schools, their culture and who they are will not be mocked and suppressed, but revered and encouraged. They will not be punished for speaking their own language, but will be encouraged, and even taught how to do so if this is something that has been lost to them. Should they choose to go on to college or vocational school, their efforts will be met with much support.

In fact, not only can they complete high school without leaving the North Slope, they can go all the way through the first two years of college.

This is how it is today. Young people can hardly be blamed if they take it for granted, and seem to think this is how it has always been.

Just a short time ago, things were very different. Schools were poorly equipped and did not offer classes beyond the elementary grades. School policy was set by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. While some very concerned educators, such as Fred Ipalook, Margaret Gray, Harold Kavelook and Tony Joule worked hard to see that local students received the best education possible, others came with poor qualifications, and little understanding or concern for local customs and tradition. Local parents often found they had little say in their children's education, and not much power battling policies established thousands of miles away. Students were punished for speaking their own language, and their Native culture was made to seem inferior to that of an invading world; something that must be put aside and forgotten.

Students who desired a high school education had to travel to boarding schools hundreds, even thousands of miles from home. The traditional part of their education was severely neglected. At boarding school, they had no opportunity to follow their fathers and grandfathers on the whale hunt, or to help cut up and prepare maktak and mikigaq. They did not learn how to prepare skins and sew the warm clothing that, to this day, remains the best protection against the Arctic cold.

The young people lived in homes constructed largely of driftwood and scrap lumber left by the military, and from the timbers of old shipwrecks. Fires broke out frequently in these structures. Most often, the equipment was not available to fight the fires, and the homes burned to the ground. On a per capita basis, more people were killed in accidental fires on the North Slope than anywhere else in the world. Modern medical care was often days away, if it could be had at all. Water had to be scooped or chopped from freshwater lakes. There was no good, sanitary disposal system for honey buckets. Roads did not exist in the villages. There were no cars and trucks. A village was lucky to have even one phone, and, if it did, the voices on that phone would come across scratchy and broken.

Village airstrips were too short to serve anything but bush planes. Pilots had no navigational aids to guide them into these strips when the weather was poor, which was often.

Other than periodic work at the military outposts, such as the Dewline stations and the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory, there were few jobs to be had. Parents did not have money to buy their children much beyond what was necessary to sustain their lives.

The Federal Field Committee Report, funded by the United States government in the late 1960's, revealed that, along with other rural regions of Alaska, the economy of the North Slope was the poorest in the nation. It was no better than that of poverty-stricken nations in the Third World.

Considering the fact that the lnupiat people had survived in good fashion in the Arctic for thousands of years before there was a U.S. government or a cash economy, to some, this might not have seemed such a bad thing.

The Inupiat people of the North Slope could go on living off of the whales, the caribou, the ducks, and the other marine mam mals, just as they always had.

Yet, even this natural part of North Slope life was threatened with destruction. Rights and traditions thousands of years old were on the edge of being forever lost to the people of the Arctic.

The Inupiat people had always had their own unwritten laws for governing themselves. Under these traditional laws, the peo- ple managed the wild animals of the Arctic, and kept order in their villages and camps. Look, for example, at one important law of the Nunamiut, who now have a permanent village at Anaktuvuk Pass, followed to govern the caribou hunt.

During the fall migration, the first group of caribou to enter the pass were not allowed to be hunted, or harassed in any way. It did not matter if the hunters had not tasted fresh meat for a very long time. Even if this lead group of caribou trotted right up to the hunters, the hunters could not kill them. They must let them go. It was not written down on paper. yet this was the law and there was good reason for it.

The Nunamiut knew that if something scared that first group of caribou, all the animals would turn and flee. They might find another valley in which to cross through the mountains. All the tens of thousands of caribou behind them would follow, out of reach of the hunters. The Nunamiut would then face great hardships in their efforts to find game and feed their families.

Yet, if the first group journeyed through the pass unharmed, all of the tens of thousands of migrating caribou would follow. Even though they were being hunted, they would not change their course. They would stay in the pass. There would be an abundance of meat to feed the Nunamiut.

Though there were no policemen or jails, the people also had laws forbidding crimes such as stealing. Offenders would be dealt with by the elders and spiritual leaders. They would be made to feel so ashamed about what they had done, they would do it no more. This method was so effective that, again and again, early groups of explorers, whalers, and missionaries remarked with amazement about the unparalleled honesty they found among the lnupiat people.

Even the most valuable possessions, left alone and unprotected would be left alone. There was great honor among the Inupiat society. People simply did not steal. Again, this law was not written down on paper, but everyone knew it was the law, and they obeyed it.

Unfortunately, the outside world did not recognize nor respect the Inupiat laws. Government leaders and lawyers from outside looked at the Far North, and did not see legal papers, nor deeds of property; they did not see lawyers, courts, and jails. They did not see roads and farms, nor towns and cities spread across the landscape. The Arctic Slope, they reasoned among themselves, was an empty, unpopulated region; a place with no government.

Although the early Russian explorers had never come to the North Slope, they had stopped and built settlements in many other parts of what is now known as Alaska. They had conquered some of the Native people along the way, and had even made slaves of a group of Aleuts who they removed from their homes and placed on the Pribilof Islands to harvest fur seals for the profit of Russia. This, they believed, gave them the right to lay claim to all of Alaska, including the Arctic. They then sold that claim to the United States.

Seeing no papers or lawyers among the people of the Arctic, and seeing what they considered to be a desolate, empty land, many leaders in the government and in the military believed they could come to North Slope and do whatever they pleased.

They felt no need to seek any kind of permission from the people already living here.

Soon, the hunters found themselves facing many hardships. Oil exploration rigs ran across the land of the Inupiat, conducting seismic tests. Oil lease sales were held by the State of Alaska at Prudhoe Bay. Although the Inupiat had been camping, hunting, and fishing on the involved lands for untold centuries, their permission was not sought nor were they consulted in anyway. When, in one day, those lease sales generated $900,000 in revenue for the state, the money all went south. None of it stayed to benefit the people whose resources were being sold. The military and the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission had earlier moved into Cape Thompson. This was where the people of Point Hope went to gather murre eggs, to hunt caribou, birds, and marine mammals, and to fish.

Point Hope was the oldest, continually occupied village in North America. Yet, when these officials decided to detonate nuclear explosives as much as 250 times more powerful then the Atomic bomb which destroyed the Japanese city of Hiroshima, they did not even bother to ask the people of Point Hope what they thought about the idea.

With no input from the Inupiat, people from far away passed laws and signed treaties which forbade the Inupiat to hunt ducks. Yet, here, ducks were hunted as a vital spring food source. These same laws allowed sports hunters living in California to shoot the ducks just for fun.

Sport hunters also were discovering that the North Slope was a fine place to hunt game. When sport hunters found caribou on the high plain in front of the Brooks Range, they had no qualms against firing at the first animals they spotted. A single shot could turn a herd, and change the entire season for the hunters of Anaktuvuk Pass. No one living here in the North had any say about it.

This is how things were in the Arctic, just prior to the formation of the North Slope Borough.

ASNA - The Beginning

A Time to Claim What Has Always Been Yours

"First of all," Joseph Upicksoun, who became involved with the Arctic Slope Native Association in 1968, explains, "I had a strong belief that we had, as lnupiat, and always had, complete dominion over the Arctic in Alaska."

Survival had always been a challenge on the North Slope. Mastering the skills needed to live here had required resourceful thinking and tough action. It probably never occurred to the officials in government and the oil industry that their intrusions into the Arctic would be greeted by the same kind of tough, resourceful action by the Native people living here. Yet, the Inupiat were not going to simply sit back and let their ancient homeland be torn from their domain.

In the 1960's, the Reverend Samuel Simmonds served his Inupiat people as a minister in the Presbyterian Church. To the people living further south, the North Slope may have seemed an empty, desolate place, a region with with no government. Who was going to stop them from moving in, taking all the oil and gas, and doing whatever they wanted with little thought given to the concerns of "a handful of Eskimos"?

Reverend Simmonds saw the North Slope as more than a desolate oil and gas reserve. It was a homeland rich with the animals which had given life to his people. It was a place where there had always been government. There may not have been laws written down on paper, nor high-priced lawyers to argue about what the paper actually said, but there had been commonly understood rules to live by.

"The village was governed by a village council," Simmonds recalls his younger days. "The village was governed by itself, not from the outside. The council was chosen at an annual town meeting. There were seven members. I happened to be one of the council. We dealt mostly with village concerns, something like, if whaling was getting under way, and if there was a need to do things like get out on the ice and build trail, the village council would make sure these things were done.

"We had no public safety back then, no jails. When some things happen, like if there were mishaps, or if somebody did something wrong, then the village council would counsel them, toward better ways of living." A youth who had taken the property of another would be met with what Simmonds describes as "the frowning of the village". Even though it was not a jail sentence, the frowning of the village is a real punishment. It is hard to live with. If someone has taken something from someone, they will return the goods.

"The church Elders were also really respected in those days. If they see someone breaking the rules, they will step in, and meet with this person. I feel it was a pretty good way of correcting."

Even so, Simmonds could see that some thing more was needed to deal with the outside world. "We were beginning to feel pressed by outsiders coming on our hunting areas," he explains. "We were beginning to see we could actually be penned in, right in our own home." The oil companies exploring in the Prudhoe Bay area and NPR-4 gave no thought to the village council, or to the Elders of the Church. "They were pretty much independent, doing their own thing. We hardly have any say. They travel in the summer time, not caring about the land. They tear up the land, expose the per- mafrost with their plows. We hardly have any say. We had to start doing some things for the betterment of our community. I could see that if we don't do anything, we could be pressed out or penned in."

This desire would lead Reverend Simmonds to play a major role in shaping the future of the North Slope, and to advance the drive for Native land claims all across Alaska. In the 1960's, the search was on for the largest reservoir of oil in North America - over 10 billion barrels at Prudhoe Bay, deep in the heart of the Inupiat homeland. Inupiat people hunted, trapped, and fished at Prudhoe Bay. They had camps and cabins where oil wells would sprout, and their dead lay in the ground. The Inupiat claim to Prudhoe Bay was ancient, extending backwards in time far beyond the day when Christopher Columbus set sail for America, or when the Russians struck a claim upon an lnupiat homeland they had never seen.

Yet, the State of Alaska held a lease sale to give energy companies the right to explore for oil in this homeland, without ever asking the Inupiat. In one day, nearly $1 billion in lease sale revenue was generated by the State for the State from this Inupiat resource. In response, Simmonds would become one of three men to organize ASNA, and to press the ancient Inupiat claim over the Arctic.

It was Charlie Edwardsen, Jr., - Etok - who actually initiated our claim," Simmonds says.

Anxious to stop the trespass of the oil companies and the State into his homeland, Edwardsen got together with Simmonds and Guy Okakok.

Okakok had gained statewide recognition reporting for the Fairbanks Daily News Miner and the Tundra Times. His work had brought widespread attention and condemnation to Project Chariot, helping to stop the governments plans to detonate nuclear bombs at Cape Thompson. Through his ministry, Simmonds had earned widespread respect and admiration.

In October of 1965, acting under the name of the Arctic Slope Native Association, Edwardsen. Okakok, and Simmonds claimed the land of the North Slope for Inupiat people. Coupled with Etok's angry fire, Okakok and Simmonds brought great moral weight to the effort. In the claim, the three gave notice to the Governor of Alaska that the lnupiat of the Arctic Slope were the owners of all Alaska from the continental divide of the Brooks Range to the Arctic Ocean.

"I was more than happy to do it," Simmonds says.

According to the minutes of an ASNA meeting held on January 15, 1966 Charles Edwardsen, Jr., opened with a brief summary of why the Inupiat had the right to all the lands of Alaska between Point Hope and the Canadian border, north from the Brooks Range.

Edwardsen also noted that in 1867, the United States had made a deal with Russia for the Purchase of Alaska. He brought up the "Organic Act of 1884," under which Congress had guaranteed that the rights of Native people to their hunting and fishing lands would be protected.

Referring to a map hanging on the wall, Edwardsen pointed out traditional land use areas in every region of the North Slope. "Edwardsen, Jr.," the minutes say, "stated that near Noatak, it has been found that the fossils are 8,000 years old. He said there have been inhabitants around that area when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt."

Along with the other participants, Edwardsen spoke in Inupiat. James Nageak, who was chosen to be secretary at the meeting, provided instantaneous translation in the writing of the minutes.

"We better start doing something about our land or else we won't be able to roam the country and hunt," Edwardsen is quoted in the minutes.

He then called for an election of officers for the new organization of the Arctic Slope Native Association. Abel Akpik, Samuel Simmonds, Charles Edwardsen, Jr., Hugh Nichols, and Guy Okakok are listed as the founding members.

Abel Akpik then read a letter from Seattle Attorney William Paul detailing his thoughts on what ASNA needed to do to claim the Inupiat homeland for the Inupiat people.

A huge portion of the North Slope had been set aside by the federal government as the Naval Petroleum Reserve - 4.

After the meeting was opened to the floor, Edward Hopson, Sr., "asked if the land would be hard to get from the Naval Reserve," the minutes state.

"Edwardsen, Jr., explained that the 99 year lease will be up in the near future. He also said that the fight for ownership of the land will be 'tough', but stated that we have a good chance of acquiring this land."

Perhaps the most emotional moment of the meeting followed. Noah Itta, who is now one of Barrow's respected Elders, was then a father who had long hunted the animals of the Arctic to feed his family. Itta spoke of his happiness that the Inupiat people were going to take action to protect their hunting grounds. He spoke of living off the land, and the hardships of doing so. Itta expressed his worry for the people in the small villages, who absolutely depended on the land for their subsistence.

Itta said "he was all for the idea of claiming the land so the Eskimos could still hunt where they please without having to trespass on someone else's land. Noah also said that his heart is lighter now since there was going to be something done about our land and the land of our ancestors."

Eddie Hopson asked if the land had already been claimed, and under what name.

"Yes," Edwardsen answered, "it has been claimed since only one person could claim for the Eskimos. The name of the organi- zation is "The Arctic Slope Native Association."

Eben Hopson, Sr., then asked if a lawyer had already been chosen. Edwardsen answered that William Paul, Sr., of Seattle, had been chosen. Paul, of Tlingit ancestry, had spent decades working on behalf of the claims of the Native people of Southeast Alaska.

Hopson did not agree with the choice of Paul. He argued in favor of hiring an Alaska based lawyer, pointing out that the Natives of Tyonek hired an Anchorage based lawyer, and settled their land claims within one year.

Edwardsen stood fast for Paul. "The Tyonek Natives had their problem settled in so short a time because they were on a reserva- tion," Edwardsen contended, pointing out that Paul had been chosen for his experience with the Tlingit people, who had no reservation.

On January 18, 1966, Paul filed the claim on behalf of ASNA in the U.S. Department of the Interior. The U.S. government, the State of Alaska, and the oil companies now knew that the Inupiat were going to fight for their ancient homeland.

Elsewhere in Alaska other Native groups were taking similar action. Yet, the State Government was eager to claim the 105 million acres of Alaska - including Prudhoe Bay - promised by the Federal government under the Statehood Act. ASNA's claim covered 58 million acres. Inspired by ASNA's actions, other Alaska Native groups were filing their own claims. Together, Alaska Natives claimed 380 million acres, virtually all of Alaska. Assisted by the Alaska Federation of Natives, they brought their claims before U.S. Interior Secretary Stewart Udall.

Udall recognized the validity of the Native claims, including ASNA's 58 million acres. In late 1966, he imposed a "land freeze" which prevented the State - or anyone else - from claiming one more acre of Alaska until the Native claims were settled.

Wally Hickel was serving his first, partial, term as governor. Hickel protested mightily against Udall's action. The freeze, Hickel contended, was a flagrant denial of the State's right to select its 105 million acres. Udall responded with a confirmation of the arguments of the members of ASNA: Russia's sale of whatever claim it held to Alaska to the US had not ended the right of the lnupiat to their traditional lands. Both the Statehood Act and the Organic Act of 1884 acknowledged Native land rights, Udall informed Hickel.

In a widely quoted passage, Udall explained: "In the face of Federal guarantee that the Alaska Natives shall not be disturbed in the use and occupation of lands, I could not in good conscience allow title to pass into other's hands... Moreover, to permit others to acquire title to the lands the Natives are using and occupying would create an adversary against whom the Natives would not have the means of protecting themselves."

In effect, Udall had said the Inupiat were, indeed the owners of the North Slope.

Hickel was not happy with this. The State of Alaska filed suit to force Udall to transfer Native ]ands to the State. Two years later, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the freeze, and left it to Congress to settle the land claims of the Alaska Native people.

Joseph Upicksoun joined ASNA in 1968. Upicksoun was born in the village of Point Lay, which, by now had all but ceased to exist. Outside of the government Dew Line workers, the only people still living there were Joe's step parents, Warren and Dorcas Neakok. One of Upicksoun's earliest memories is the dogsled trip he made at the age of four from Wainwright to Point Lay. Riding on the sled with him was a coffin, which contained the body of his mother. Later, his father, Allen Upicksoun married Dorcas, who raised Joe as though he were her natural born son. After the death of Allen, Dorcas married Warren.

Upicksoun attended the Point Lay BIA school through the eighth grade, At 11, he ventured off to boarding school in White Mountain. After graduating from high school, he went to sea with the Merchant Marines. At 19, he was drafted and sent to war in Korea. He quickly became a squad leader, and purposefully led his men into hostile fire to enable the U.S. artillery to locate the enemy, and destroy them.

After the war, Upicksoun found work on the Dewline, where he quickly became a supervisor. James Nageak recalls how impressed many ASNA members were to learn Upicksoun had been made boss over non Natives from the Lower 48. "We wanted him in ASNA," Nageak remembers. Finally, tired of moving from Dew station to Dew station, Joe settled down with his wife, Alice, to a well paying job with Barrow Utilities. He was ready to quietly raise his family, and to enjoy life. Then, according to Nageak, he and other members of ASNA sought to persuade Joe to enter their ranks, to join the battle for Inupiat land claims.

"You want me to leave a job with good pay, to take on a job with no pay?" Nageak recalls Upicksoun asking.

Upicksoun entered the battle, armed with energy, enthusiasm, and confidence the Inupiat would win.

"At ASNA, our mission, and our instructions, came from our people," Upicksoun recalls. "One: we were to protect our land. Two: we were to bring in quality education. Three: we sought a basic improvement in housing. Four: we needed an improved health care delivery system for the people of all our villages."

Upicksoun was elected as first vice president under the strong leadership of the late Walton Ahmaogak. In 1969, Upicksoun became president.

"The people that I was involved with in ASNA then were men like John Oktollik, Eddie Hopson, Sr., Wyman Panigeo, Lester Suvlu, Nelson Ahvakana and the local chairman from each of our four outlying villages," Upicksoun recalls. In addition to Barrow, the other member villages were Point Hope, Wainwright, Anaktuvuk Pass, and Kaktovik. The impacts of alcohol and other social problems brought into Point Lay by the Dewline station, coupled with a lack of jobs, had driven most of the residents of Upicksoun's home village away. The people of the Nuiqsut and Atqasuk areas had also sought greater opportunity elsewhere.

ASNA had put its full effort into securing the Inupiat claim of 58 million acres. No one had yet thought about combating the State takeover of their land by organizing a borough under State law. Yet, adaptability had always been key to survival in the Arctic, and would be now.

During repeated lobbying trips to Washington, the leaders of ASNA began to understand politics, and the workings of gov- ernment. "As we lobbied for the Alaska Native Claims under ASNA leadership, we developed some thorough intelligence in Washington, D.C.," Upicksoun explains. "We knew what the bottom line was."

It was not good. Congress leaned toward a settlement which would drop some token cash on the Native communities, but which would leave them with only a sliver of their ancient lands. With Edwardsen once again taking a lead role, the villages of the North Slope overwhelmingly voted to organize a tribal government under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. The Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope was envisioned to be the entity that would take control of settlement lands and the monies that came with them. ICAS would serve as the tribal government, with powers recognized under federal law.

"This would the first regional IRA in the history of the U.S.", Upicksoun states. "As it turned out, Congress, in its infinite wisdom, came up with the regional corporation concept, regional corporations which would be incorporated under state law?"

Again, through their sources in Washington, not the least of whom were Senators Henry Jackson and Warren Magnusun from Washington, the ASNA leadership learned of this in advance. By now, ASNA had separated itself from the AFN. The majority of AFN had agreed among themselves that the lands and money from a land claims settlement would be divided up among the different regions on a per-capita basis - the regions with the most people would get the most land, and the most money.

This angered ASNA. The Arctic Slope had one of the smaller populations, but had a land base second in size only to Doyon. Under this plan, the Inupiat would be losing the most land of all Natives, and be paid the least in compensation. Inupiat lands contained the richest oil fields in North America, and some of the wealthiest coal and mineral deposits in the world. ASNA believed the Inupiat should be compensated according to their loss, not their population.

Finally, AFN capitulated, agreeing to what would become known as the "land-loss formula." ASNA's aboriginal land base was recognized as 56.5 million acres. "This was about 16 percent of the total for all Alaska;' Upicksoun explains. "Therefore, we would take 16 percent" of the settlement lands and money. AFN's target at this time was 60 million acres, plus initial compensation of $500 million for lands lost, with a perpetual two-percent share of all income generated on all public lands in Alaska.

Again, ASNA's intelligence in Washington told them what the real bottom line was. "The settlement was going to be 40 million acres, for all the Native people of Alaska," Upicksoun recalls. "At 16 percent, our share would be about 5 million acres. This meant we would lose control of 51.5 million acres." - 51.5 million acres vital to the Traditional Inupiat lifestyle. The State and Federal governments would now decide what would happen on these lands The Inupiat would have no say. Included in that 51.5 million acres were the 10 billion barrels of oil at Prudhoe Bay. The oil would now be drained from the lnupiat homeland, and would generate many billions of dollars of wealth, all of which would pour southward.

Little benefit would be left behind for the true people of the North. Countless thousands of jobs would be created for residents of Fairbanks, Anchorage, Juneau, Seattle. and points south. Poverty and unemployment would remain for the original owners of the oil. North Slope oil would bring much cheaper gasoline prices to those living down below but the people of the Arctic would still pay outrageous amounts for gas. Heating oil would be all but impossible to buy.

"The problem we were faced with," Upicksoun recalls. "was, how do we go about maintaining control of the 51.5 million acres we would be losing under the settlement act?"

It was time to fight State law with State law. "Under the State Constitution," Upicksoun explains. "there were provisions for area wide powers which would very much allow us to have control over all our homeland. We could do this through the use of two powers of local government - taxation and zoning. We could tax the oil industry at Prudhoe Bay to provide a base for a borough government. This would provide the revenue we needed to accomplish the four goals we had set at ASNA. Zoning: we would have the power to zone the industry - not to zone the industry out; the industry is our tax base - but to zone for subsistence, to protect those places our people depend upon for their food and living."

At this time, Eben Hopson was serving as a special assistant to Alaska Governor Egan. Coupled with his experience as a State Senator, he was becoming educated as to the workings of State and municipal governments. When the time came that the Inupiat people would decide he should come home and lead them, he would be ready.

First, there was much to be done, on a grass roots level by the people from the North Slope villages. The leadership of ASNA consulted with their attorney, Fred Paul, who had taken over for his father, William. In response, Paul wrote a letter dated March 6, 1969, which contained the following advise:

"As I have explained to you, the Federal Field Committee recommends giving us cash and relatively little land. Therefore, we must figure out some way of protecting your subsistence living on the land. The Federal Field Committee envisions two systems; the first is that the Alaska Native Development Corporation will have sufficient cash and political strength that it can through the legislature give you some assistance, remembering that conceivably the Alaska Native development Corporation can have cash in hand within ten years of more than one billion dollars. But I do not believe we should put all our eggs in one basket.

"The second system that is available to us is the creation of a borough. In an informal talk with Mr. Fitzgerald, Chairman of the Federal Field Committee, he thought the natural alignment of such a borough would be: Barrow, Kobuk and Nome election districts.

"Please be advised that I would like to proceed immediately with the creation of a borough up there and would like to have some direction from you as to what areas we should invite in with us. Kindly advise me.

"The value of the borough is that it can control zoning. Thus the borough could pass a resolution forbidding commercial development in certain areas, the areas you need for your subsistence living. Such a resolution would, have the force of law, and no development could be effected therein."

"When it was very evident that 40 million acres was the bottom line," Upicksoun recalls the event that kicked the movement for the North Slope Borough into motion, "This one guy, Charlie Edwardsen, Jr., came to me right on the street in Juneau. He said, "Joe we've got to get a petition going." He said that we should get Bob Dupere, who had helped organize the MatSu Borough organized, working for us. That's how fast Charlie Edwardsen can take action."

With the help of Dupere, a petition to form a first class borough on the North Slope, was soon drafted.

The Presbyterian Church

ASNA had been born with great ideas and high ambitions, but with no money. "Charlie never worried about money," Fred Paul remembers. "I knew what ASNA was going to do would cost an enormous amount of money." There would be trips to Washington, D.C., to Juneau, to Anchorage, and who knew where else. Somewhere, ASNA needed to find stone money, and fast.

As was Reverend Simmonds, most of the members of ASNA were numbered among the congregation of the Presbyterian Church. Fred Paul was also a Presbyterian, very active, with a long Presbyterian family history. His grandfather had died in the service of the Church. Although still classified as "a young Turk," James Nageak, the secretary of the new organization, had served in the ministry in the villages of Kaktovik and Anaktuvuk Pass.

"We were wheeling and dealing with the Presbyterian Church," Nageak recalls. While attending meetings of the General Assembly in Denver, Nageak got to know a number of Native Americans from the Lower 48. The General Assembly was searching for an Alaska Native to join its Church and Society Committee. Nageak suggested Martha Aiken of Barrow, and she was selected.

"Then we learned the General Assembly had money for Native people, to help in their fight for self-determination," Nageak explains.

Fred Paul also knew of the fund. He also knew that even if he could help ASNA secure a grant from this "self development fund," the terms of the grant would prevent the organization from using any of it to pay him. Still, it would be of great benefit to ASNA's lobbying efforts, and would also help cover other expenses, such as postage and telephone.

Backed by Aiken, Eddie Hopson, Nageak and the other Presbyterians of ASNA, Paul presented the request to the Synod of the Church. By a vote of 15-14, the Presbyterians agreed to give the new Native organization $85,000 to aid in their land claim efforts.

From his office in Juneau, Eben Hopson also became involved in the effort. In a letter to the local ASNA Chairmen of Pt. Hope, Wainwright, Barter Island, Anaktuvuk Pass, and Barrow, dated January 16, 1970, Hopson made the following Points:

"First, in our discussion of this proposal with Mr. Beard, the Director of the Local Affairs Agency, in the Governor's office, these things were brought out:

"(a.) That the borough would be responsible for, upon its takeover, the operation and maintenance of all our schools;

"(b.) That because there are no First Class Cities with the area proposed to be incorporated, there would be no weighted voting:

"(c.) That based on the total population of the area, we would have one assemblyman from each village, and an elected chairman at large, if this were the wish of the people;

"(d.) That we would also, upon incorporation, assume a taxing power to raise revenue so that the borough could operate under it's government;

"(e.)... Our tax base, which would include, among other things, all oil field equipment, drill rigs not actually connected to a well, and all properties taxable under law, not otherwise prohibited by restricted title.

"(f.) ...we would have to assume the responsibility of appointing all our school boards, clerks, tax assessors, all school teachers, and other personnel to support the operation of a school. School books and other equipment will have to be bought.

"(g.) In addition to those powers required under the Second Class borough, we would ask for the area wide powers for health, which would give us the authority to contract for medical people where we do not have them now... Doctors and Nurses.

"lb.)... We say that Barrow, Wainwright, Pt. Hope, Kaktovik and Anaktuvuk Pass, wish to incorporate using the same boundaries as our land claim. We propose that the seat of government should be at Barrow, Alaska; that we would have five assemblymen, one from each village, and an elected chairman, if this were the wish of the people, and that we wish to exercise the additional powers for health in addition to those powers granted a Second Class Borough ....

"The desire for self determination on the part of the people who wish to exercise that right should not be denied by those that govern. I think every opportunity should be afforded the people who wish to initiate and suffer the hardships of self determination through a more expanded local government.

"It is also my belief that the fact that we have started this petition for incorporation on our own and explaining the involvement of the people in local government is a very healthy thing..

"It is true that we will need some people who are well qualified to handle some areas of our responsibilities. It is possibly true that perhaps we do not have the people within our own area who are tax experts and experts in other fields. However, we should not feel that we are not ready to assume full responsibility for expanded local self government, because we can hire expertise where we need them. I am not saying that we do not have them. We have many good business people within our area and other civic minded individuals who are just waiting for opportunities like this to tackle.

"Enclosed please find a resolution proposing to incorporate a Second Class Borough. This is a sample petition and may be used to discuss this subject. Additional time will be spent by me personally with each of you before July of this year, at which time we hope to submit the official petition for the purpose of obtaining signatures for the proposed Borough."

Eben Hopson, Executive Director

Arctic Slope Native Association

 

Upicksoun joined Eddie Hopson and other leaders of ASNA on airplane trips to all the villages. "We explained thc concept of the Borough to our people, and what it could do for our whole region," Upicksoun recalls. "The reaction was very positive. All the villages wanted to get on the band wagon, to support the borough concept."

Soon, they had gathered what they believed were the required number of signatures to require the State to take action on their petition. The petition, signed by Joseph Upicksoun, President, ASNA, was sent to the Chair of the Local Affairs Agency, Byron Mallot. Provisions included:

 

On July 16, 1971, Mallot gave ASNA the following response: "…In accordance with the requirement of the Alaska Statutes, under which the petition has been filed, the agency has initiated an investigation of the petition. The results of this investigation will be reported to the State Local Boundary Commission, at which time the petition will be scheduled for public hearing within the boundaries of the proposed organized borough…"

Mallot eventually informed ASNA the petition was short of signatures, and therefore invalid.

A confrontation followed, with a face off between Edwardsen and Mallot. Mallot advanced the petition that the percentage of signatures needed was based on the number of all the eligible voters on the North Slope. The signatures on the petition fell short of this number. Edwardsen advanced the ASNA position that legally, the required percentage needed to come from only those voters who had voted in the last election. That percentage was met.

Depending on who one talks to, this was merely a heated exchange or an event which left Mallot lying flat on his back on a Washington, D.C. sidewalk.

To bolster ASNA's position, the city governments of each village within ASNA submitted statements in support of the petition. The following resolution from the village of Kaktovik is typical:

"For more than two years now, the Arctic Slope Native Association has been sponsoring a borough for the whole North Slope

"We understand that we will have burdens, like schools, but we also understand we will have a right of taxation and of zoning.

"We favor the creation of a first-class borough of the whole slope."

Dated this 22 day of August, 1971.

Village of Barter Island (Kaktovik)

By: Gregg A. Tagarook, Mayor

Attest:

By: Alice A. Killbear, Clerk

The oil industry did not share Inupiat enthusiasm for the concept of the North Slope Borough. "The oil companies just could not see 4,000 Inupiat getting all the benefits of having such a huge tax base," Upicksoun recalls the battle which followed.

The first blow to strike down the borough was thrown by the Alaska Oil and Gas Association. In a memo to John Havelock, Attorney General of the State of Alaska, lawyers for AOGA set the groundwork for what would be an unrelenting struggle to quash the Inupiat drive for self-determination.

In introducing the memo, AOGA manager William Hopkins stated:

"The companies concerned and this Association feel that this proposal has great importance, and that the decision which will be made as a result of the petition being filed will influence the lives of the people who live there, the industries that operate there and indeed, the entire Alaska community."

AOGA lawyer H. Russel Holland argued that ASNA's position had been filed on an invalid form. He claimed that when Alaska had become a state, the constitution required it to be divided into Boroughs. Some of these boroughs were organized. For example, the Fairbanks North Star Borough was an "organized borough." There were similar organized boroughs in Anchorage, Juneau, and the Mat-Su valley.

Virtually all of Rural Alaska, including the North Slope, was included in what was known as the "unorganized borough". Holland claimed the Inupiat were "not sufficiently developed to undertake local government on their own." He contended a new borough could not be established without changing the boundaries of the unorganized borough, and that the state had set no guidelines for changing the unorganized borough.

It would take an act of the Alaska State Legislature to change the boundaries, and to create a new government entity such as the North Slope Borough. Holland insisted, arguing that ASNA's petition was worthless. Holland did not say that many in the Alaska State Legislature and the administration of Governor Egan did not want to see the North Slope Borough created. They feared the Borough would claim revenues that would otherwise go to the State. Industry lobbyists had great influence inside the Alaska Legislature. If a bill to establish the North Slope Borough ever came before the legislature, the industry was confident their lobbyists could guarantee its defeat.

Holland claimed that there were other, more critical problems with the ASNA petition.

"The really serious question presented by this petition," Holland wrote, "does the area proposed for incorporation conform to such standards as are available? No area may be incorporated as an organized borough unless it conforms to (four sets of) standards. "It is required that the population of a proposed area be "interrelated and integrated as to its social, cultural, and economic activities," Holland cited the first standard. Anyone familiar with the people of the North Slope, their relations, customs, and hunting habits could only conclude that they were one of the most "interrelated and integrated" groups of people in the Nation, especially when compared to the populations of boroughs such as those in Anchorage and Fairbanks. Holland did not see it this way.

"It is difficult for us to conclude that the area proposed by the Arctic Slope Native Association for incorporation is interrelated and integrated as to its social, cultural, and economic activities," Holland challenged. "The use of the word "interrelated' denotes a situation of broad, multi-level dealings between people. The use of the word 'integrated' suggests that the area is to form a cohesive whole, that it has become united; and by reference to social, cultural, and economic units within the proposed incorporation area; but it is difficult for us to perceive any overall integration or interrelation…on a [proposed] boroughwide basis."

Holland was arguing that Kaktovik, Barrow, Wainwright, Anaktuvuk Pass and Point Hope were not interrelated socially, culturally, or economically. He even claimed the North Slope communities had "far more substantial social, cultural, and economic relations with the urban centers to the south - Kotzebue, Nome, and Fairbanks - then they do as between themselves."

Only a lawyer could seriously advance such illogical legal logic.

"It is perhaps instructive to observe at this point that although the oil industry employs few people who will qualify as residents so as to be entitled to vote in any election on the North Slope, the industry facilities and personnel on the North Slope and within the proposed borough are, in our opinion, clearly a part of the North slope society, culture, and economy which the Local Affairs Agency must consider," Holland continued.

"The activity generated by the discovery of oil on the North Slope in our view has little or no interrelation or integration with the proposed area of incorporation as a whole, but in particular it has little or no social or economic connection with the proposed borough seat, Barrow, which is 200 miles away from the center of the major development at Prudhoe Bay."

Thus, Holland argued that the proposed borough did not meet this first standard, and the petition should be rejected. He then took on the second standard:

"The population shall be qualified and willing to assume the duties arising out of incorporation, shall have a clear understanding of the nature of the undertaking…and shall be large enough and stable enough to warrant and support the evaluation of organized borough government."

Holland readily agreed that with a tax base as huge as industry operations at Prudhoe Bay and along the pipeline would surely become, there was no question that the North Slope Borough would have the financial resources it needed. Beyond this, he questioned the ability of the Inupiat residents to live up to this requirement.

"Dealing with the standards of qualification, willingness, and stability is more difficult... Beyond these communities, it is difficult to perceive how the population of the proposed borough could be deemed 'stable.' It is a fact that there simply is no population, permanent or otherwise, in vast portions of the area proposed for incorporation," Holland contended.

"Concerning the standard of a "willing" population... we do wonder... if the residents of Wainwright, Point Hope. Anaktuvuk Pass and Kaktovik realize the implications to their municipal governments of borough incorporation... it would be interesting to know whether the fourth-class cities within the proposed borough are aware of the fact that they will, for example, lose their power to levy and collect taxes."

"We feel that the Local Boundary commission would have to reject the petition to the extent that it seeks to provide the proposed borough with unauthorized powers within cities," Holland added.

As to "the matter of a population which is 'qualified' to assume the duties arising out of incorporation," Holland argued, "the borough will have to deal with taxation, education, and planning and zoning on an area wide basis... the North Slope Borough will have assumed the obligations for the street construction and maintenance, fire and police protection, and health and relief. With all due respect to those who have worked hard in developing a proposal for incorporation... the subject petition attempts to take on too much for a very sparsely populated area."

This, Holland said, was one more reason why the ASNA petition should not be accepted - the people of the North Slope were not qualified to manage the borough.

The next set of standards Holland dealt with call for organized boroughs to have boundaries "which conform generally to the natural geography of the area proposed for incorporation. "The proposed boundaries appear meaningful geographically," Holland conceded. "However... boroughs ought to be people oriented rather than being created by reference to arbitrary geographic lines." Holland then took on the next portion of this standard. It called for organized boroughs to encompass "all areas necessary and proper for the full development of integrated local government services, but shall exclude all areas such as military reservations, glaciers, icecaps and uninhabited and unused lands unless such areas are necessary or desirable for integrated local government"

On this point, Holland maintained that the North Slope Borough would fail miserably. "The proposed borough obviously includes completely unpopulated mountain ranges," he argued. "Completely unpopulated mile upon square mile of uninhabited tundra; and the 8,900,000 acre Arctic Wildlife Preserve which is, so far as we know, totally unpopulated, and the 23,000 acre Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4.... the entire proposed borough area is uninhabited with the exception of several small communities and the Prudhoe Bay Center of the oil activity.

"We cannot conceive of how any of the vast lands between the few pockets of population are necessary for an integrated government except for the basic fact that a tax base valuable enough to support the whole borough exists in the island of oil activity at Prudhoe Bay... The lands proposed for incorporation are so vast in comparison to the portions which are in any sense developed or populated as to boggle the mind."

Holland then brought up the economy standard. Under this, the boundaries of an organized borough were expected to enclose a 'trading area'. "In our opinion," Holland argued. "The proposed area fails completely to encompass a 'trading area.'" He argued that the North Slope villages traded with Kotzebue, Fairbanks, and Anchorage, but not with each other. This was one more reason, Holland insisted, for the petition to be rejected.

The last set of standards Holland brought up involved transportation. Boroughs were required to have "transportation facilities of a 'unified nature as to facilitate the commu- nication and exchange necessary for the development of integrated local government and a community of interest." Preferably, this meant roads, Holland argued. Areas accessible only by water or air could be included in a borough only if "Access to them is reasonably inexpensive, readily available, and reasonably safe." Holland contended that "the proposed borough thoroughly fails to meet the condition of having unified transportation facilities... the North Slope has no road system which connects the centers of population.... only by air, and only between Barrow and Prudhoe Bay is there any sort of regular air communication. All other travel is by bush plane which is hardly, we think, to be termed an 'inexpensive' means of transportation. The ready availability of such is doubtful; and, without meaning to impune the reliability of North Slope bush pilots, we wonder if this means of travel can truthfully be referred to as 'reasonably safe' given the high latitudes and poor weather conditions which prevail during much of the year."

After presenting these arguments, Holland stated "we believe that the Local Affairs Agency investigation should conclude that the proposed incorporation of the North slope Borough does not meet the standards prescribed by the legislature." He argued that it would even be illegal for the Local Boundary Commission to hold hearings on the North Slope Borough petition.

Yet, ASNA's petition was accepted by the Local Affairs Agency. Mallot concluded that the petition not only had the required number of signatures, but met all legal standards. A public hearing was set for December 2,1971, in Barrow. Here, both the villagers in favor of the borough, and the industry representatives opposed to it, would have another chance to argue for their positions.

 

The Local Boundary Commission Hearings

Well before the hearings of December 2, the leadership of ASNA and their attorney, Fred Paul, had familiarized themselves with the arguments the oil industry was using to oppose the Borough. "We knew they were going to argue that a borough would be against the interests of the villages, and that if the villages understood what a borough was, they wouldn't want to be part of it," Fred Paul recalls, "We knew that John Hedland, the chairman of the Local Boundary Commission, was hostile towards us. I told Joe, the president of ASNA, to bring in city councils from all the villages." From the time of Holland's memo, the industry representatives had sought to speak for the villages. If the villages knew what they would have to give up, the industry maintained, they would not want to be part of the North Slope

Borough.

"It was time," Upicksoun recounts, "to let the villages speak for themselves. Of course they understood what the Borough would mean to them!"

Two events of the past couple of years had especially convinced the residents of the North Slope that they needed some kind of government which could exercise the powers they sought. In addition to the Prudhoe sale which, in one day, had brought in $900 million dollars, two additional sales had earned revenues of $100 and $300 million respectively. A total of $1.3 billion dollars had been earned on the lands of the Inupiat homeland. All the revenues had went south.

Even more tragic, an airplane transporting Native students to the boarding school at Mt. Edgecumbe crashed near Juneau. Five Barrow youth were among the dead.

It was time to build high schools on the North Slope. It was time to establish the North Slope Borough. It was time to come to the hearings in Barrow, and speak up for your rights.

By the 7:30 PM meeting time, a large excited crowd had gathered. All the villages were represented, with the exception of Anaktuvuk Pass. The chartered airplane had twice tried to get into the village, and twice, bad weather had prevented it from doing so.

The interests of the oil companies would be represented by Harlan Flint. an attorney for Mobile Oil. In addition to Hedland, the commissioners included A1 Schontz, Gary Ackerman, Christopher Bernsdorf, Bob Dorn and Byron Mallot. While Hedland might have exhibited some initial hostility towards the creation of the borough, the Inupiat knew they had at least one friend on the board. Schontz was a Barrow businessman, married into the Inupiat community. He had been personally recruited into the LBC by Eben Hopson, Governor Egan's special assistant.

After the formalities, LBC chairman John Hedland called on Fred Paul to present the case for the ASNA petition. Paul called Joseph Upicksoun as his first witness. Upicksoun identified himself as the President of the Arctic Slope Native Association, and the Acting President of the newly formed Innova Corporation. "The reason we have the Innova Corporation," Upicksoun explained, "is because there is innovation in developing our own communities up here in the Arctic.

"The Innova Corporation would be similar to a think tank, like the Brookings Institution that the legislative Affairs hired in 1969 for a study on the future of Alaska."

In response to questions asked by Paul, Upicksoun expressed the desires for self-determination felt by the Inupiat people. He spoke of BIA schools going no further than elementary levels. He spoke of the work of the Federal Field Committee, whose recommendations had helped establish the boundaries of what would become the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation.

"The Arctic Slope Region as referred to in the Federal Field Committee report indicates that there is 56.5 million acres of land in the Arctic Slope region..." Upicksoun testified. "The Federal Field Committee used the Brooks Range going from Point Hope village and using the water shed from the Brooks Range all the way up to the Canadian Border and the Arctic Ocean as the other bound."

This, of course, was the same area the ASNA had designated for the borough. Contrary to oil company arguments, the Federal Field Committee had recognized the region as one interrelated, integrated, community, socially, culturally, and economically. Eben Hopson had not been able to leave Juneau and come to Barrow for the hearings. Eben sent a statement, which, as Paul's second witness, Eben's older brother, Eddie, read into the record.

"I actually took part in the passage of legislation to create organized boroughs," the future mayor had written. "Therefore, I speak with some authority and knowledge in this constitutionally." Addressing the standard of whether or not the communities of the proposed borough were "inter-related and integrated" socially, culturally, and economically, Hopson responded forcefully. "Gentlemen, this proposed North slope borough would, in fact, be the first in our area to be incorporated that fully complies with this particular standard. Culturally, socially or otherwise, this area is integrated and inter-related in all respects...

"Let me say that the proposed boundaries of the borough conform with the requirement and let me support it by saying that the Arctic Slope Native Association has the same boundaries and the I.R.A. corporation has the same boundaries as (stated in) my previous testimony before the Apportionment Board for the creation of an elective district using the same boundaries.

"May I also add that the natural boundaries of the whole area has been the Brooks Range from the Canadian Border east to Cape Lisbourne on the west. There are no arbitrary lines drawn. And this again is one area where you are actually complying with a requirement in the Constitution of the State of Alaska...

"On the point of encompassing a trading area, even before I started the effort to organize this Borough, I testified before the Congressional Committee: ' The whole North Slope area used to be a trading area from the Demarcation Point to Point Hope, and from the Brooks Range to the Arctic Ocean.'"

"Only through the expansion of travel by air transportation has the trading area gone beyond the North Slope Area...

"Let me also say that no substantially limited area of incorporation will be in the best interest of the whole North Slope area. If we had the idea of a small and troublesome bor- ough like most boroughs are, we would not have to include the whole North Slope. Let me also remind the Commission that this Administration is very sensitive to the problems of the Bush and has been very responsible in this respect.

Eben Hopson concluded his written testimony with this plea: "May I suggest and urge the Commission to accept the said petition and permit the people involved to decide the final question..."

George Agnassaga, the Mayor of Wainwright, followed Hopson. His village, Agnassaga confirmed, was strongly in favor of the North Slope Borough. "The most important reason is the education. We have the BIA school up to the eighth grade, but we also have students who go down to Wrangell on completion of the seventh grade... We have approximately 100 (grade school students) at Wainwright, and approximately 50 (high school students) who leave Wainwright for their education.

A little before 9:00 PM, Chairman Hedland called a short break. During the break, Paul spoke with the industry's lawyer, Harlan Flint. "It's getting late," Paul noted, "and we're all getting a little tired. Perhaps you'd like to go next."

Flint readily agreed.

Paul, however, was not merely being polite. During the earlier proceedings, he had noticed a couple of newspaper reporters in the audience, including Margie Bauman of the Anchorage Daily News. As a whole, the daily press in Alaska had taken a hostile stance toward the idea of the North Slope Borough. Along with Howard Rock's Tundra Times, Margie Bauman's reports in the Daily News had provided the only fair coverage to the Inupiat.

Just before his offer to Flint, Paul had chatted with Bauman.

"When is your deadline?" he had asked.

"10:00 PM;' she answered.

Flint took the stand, and put forth the industry's position that, due to the supposed change in the boundary of the unorganized borough, this LBC hearing itself was illegal. Under questioning by Paul, Flint touched again on the oil companies objections to the borough. What became especially clear was the fact that the oil companies, who were about to map the benefits of the richest mineral find ever in the United States, did not want to pay taxes to the traditional owners of those riches.

Flint's testimony ended just before 10:00 PM - just in time to make the next edition of the Anchorage Daily News. The story spoke of the Inupiat desire for self-determination, and, through Harlan Flint's words, the efforts of the industry to thwart those desires.

John Oktollik spoke for the people of Point Hope, and Herman Rexford for Kaktovik. Both strongly emphasized the support of their villages for the Borough. Jack Chenowith, the mayor of Barrow, told of the hardships of trying to fight fires, and meet the needs of housing, water, and sewage in a community as short of cash as Barrow was.

Some of the most moving testimony of the hearing came from Barrow Elder Alfred Hopson.

"Now I understand that I am supposed to make an effort to make you people understand how we built the Arctic Slope," Hopson testified. "We have people on the coast, living on the ocean and using both the land and the sea. We have people on the mountainside, living off the fish, moose, caribou, wolves, foxes - everything that was to be taken.

"And we could not survive without having some communication with each other. So there were bands of people who traveled from one village to another, which was recreational in a way, but it was the main trade, and they traded their goods for what they needed. They came off the slope and bought what they needed from the people who lived on the mountainside.

"One reason the Eskimo is so proud of himself is that he knows, as long as he is alive, that he can go anywhere and survive, regardless of the weather and the storms. Anyone can go out from here that knows how to survive, in terms of equipment as long as he has a shovel and a knife, you can get what's there and provide shelter that is much warmer than a double 8 ounce duck material.

"So that's why these men have so much pride in themselves, because they have survived, all through the years." Hopson made it clear that all the empty, uninhabited lands the industry had pointed to were used by the Inupiat. He spoke of the travels of hunters, and of reindeer herders. Hopson made it clear that the entire 56.5 million acres were of great importance to his people. It was their home.

"That struggle for survival is based on the fact that this old Arctic Slope keeps the Eskimo alive," Hopson continued. "It has been our security for ages. Any time that we wanted an 'apple,' we went out and got it. We got what we wanted to live on, got what we needed. So this is the reason that we want this security for our coming generations. We can not help but know that it is being exploited and will be exploited to the point where we will not have freedom to make our own living. All we ask is... we don't want to be left out in the cold. as long as there's oil coming out of the ground."

Hopson also made it clear that his people understood that, for the security of the U.S., them was a need to exploit the oil of Prudhoe Bay. Still, Prudhoe Bay was in the homeland of the Inupiat, Hopson pointed out. The Inupiat should receive their share of the benefits of that exploitation. Without a borough, their chances of doing so were slim.

The hearings would continue until 2:00 A.M.. Among the other witness was the BIA Superintendent for the Fairbanks agency. Although the advent of the borough would mean displacement of some of his people, particularly in education, Craig strongly backed the petition.

"I have found, in the north particularly, that there is a quality of leadership, a quality of integrity, a quality of dedication, a quality of listening and working together to achieve a given goal that I have not truly seen evidenced in any other particular area," Craig testified.

The hearing ended with extensive expert testimony from Bob Dupere, the consultant who Charlie Edwardsen had recruited to draft the petition.

Despite the bad weather, the people of Anaktuvuk Pass would yet have their say. Shortly after the hearings, Upicksoun and Eddie Hopson traveled to the village to record statements of the Nunamiut for the record.

Bob Ahgook delivered some moving testimony which, according to Paul, would prove vital in convincing the LBC commissioners that the Inupiat deserved the self-determination a borough would provide.

"I have one child going out next year," he spoke of his daughter, Dorothy. "She is quite young. What I mean is, to go out quite young, the change of a big city, like going in the dark but they don't know which way to go or they don't know what to do with themselves when they go in a big city so young. I would feel that going to high school for four years, starting out pretty young, like fourteen years old... you don't know what to do. A lot of our people here in the village pretty much in favor of getting a small school for 9th and 10th grades. Then give a chance for a child to be a little older and learn a little bit more what's life.

"I am not against the high school any where in Alaska. I just like to see some schools established in small villages."

Although the English of a man born and raised speaking Inupiaq may not have been perfect, Ahgook expressed his feelings well. The commissioners could not help but be touched by his words.

The February Meeting

On February 8, 1972, the LBC announced a meeting in Anchorage, set for the February 23 - 25: This would be the time of decision; would there, or would them not, be a North Slope Borough? It would be up to the commissioners to decide.

Another purpose of the meeting would be to discuss three bills recently introduced into the Alaska State House. The bills would deal with the formation of organized boroughs from within the unorganized borough, and with the collection and distribution of property tax, particularly in relation to the oil industry.

In preparation for the meeting, Richard Garnett, the assistant attorney general for the State of Alaska, prepared an opinion which did not look good for the borough. Garnett brought up the concerns of the oil companies as to whether or not the North Slope Borough would meet the required standards.

Referring to earlier visits made to the North Slope villages by members of the Local Affairs agency. Garnett stated that the people of the villages showed little understanding of what a borough was. Speaking of Kaktovik and Anaktuvuk Pass, Garnett said "residents of the village exhibited little knowledge about the Arctic Slope Native Association petition for the North Slope Borough... it might be noted that clear statements of opposition cannot really be expected because of the general lack of knowl- edge of the borough concept of government."

In other words, Garnett was implying, on behalf of the State of Alaska, that although the residents of these villages had enthusiastically supported the Borough in the hearings, they really did not know anything about what they were supporting, and, if they had have, they would likely have opposed it.

Garnett went on to note that if the LBC approved the Borough, the matter would certainly be taken to courts by the oil industry. The courts, Garnett said, "might find that the statute contemplates a higher level of understanding by the populace prior to formation than has been exhibited to the commission."

"He was saying Eskimos didn't know the time of day," Fred Paul translates Garnett's words into simpler language. "He was saying Eskimos were not qualified to manage a borough, Eskimos were unfamiliar with Borough government. That bothered me a great deal."

Garnett supported the industry arguments on other matters, as well. "A Borough is not to include uninhabited and unused lands... In our view, a court would find that the area does include uninhabited and unused lands... The issue is whether such lands are necessary or desirable for integrated local government. With respect particular to the western part of the borough, a court could conclude, on the basis of the record, that the degree of integration which could be achieved between Barrow and the combined total of 222 inhabitants of Kaktovik and Anaktuvuk Pass does not warrant inclusion of those villages."

Garnett also questioned whether the few scheduled mail flights between the North Slope villages and the availability of chartered flights amounted "to readily available, reasonably inexpensive travel."

Despite this discouraging legal opinion from the State, the backers of the Borough greeted the decisional meeting with optimism. "I had confidence we would prevail," Upicksoun recalls. "We had the best attorneys, although we had no money to pay them. Our cause was just."

During the course of the meetings, Paul introduced attorneys Peter Ashenbrenner and David Getches of the Native American Rights Fund, out of Denver, Colorado. NARF was well known in the Native American community for its knowledge of Indian law, and its dedication to Native issues. Paul had invited them to help with the case.

Russel Holland was on hand to represent the oil industry, along with attorney W.R. Harrison of Mobil Oil. Harlan Flint would also join in the debate. Among the handful of other meeting participants officially noted on the record was Charlie Edwardsen, Jr. Holland quickly set out to challenge the legality of any evidence that might be heard at the meeting. The record, Holland said, was officially closed. Any further testimony regarding the North Slope Borough would be illegal. Hedland responded that if further testimony was needed, further testimony would be taken. It would be part of the record.

Harrison joined Holland in stating that the oil companies opposed any new evidence as illegal.

Fred Paul had his own answer. "We do have, Mr. Chairman, a desire to file a proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law at this time. By way of explanation, this is not evidence, this is comments."

"Well put," LBC Chairman Hedland answered.

Debate over the next three days was fast and furious. Rather than depicting their opposition to the borough as an attempt to limit the self-determination of the North Slope Inupiat, the industry lawyers sought to portray themselves as champions of the smaller North Slope villages, and of all the Native villages south of the North Slope. Because of Barrow's larger population, the lawyers insisted, all five at large North Slope Borough assembly members would certainly come from Barrow. The people in the other four villages would have no representation on the assembly, they insisted.

Furthermore, they argued that any taxes levied on the industry should be for the benefit of all the villages in the Unorganized Borough. These taxes should be levied by the Alaska State legislature. The legislature would then act as the local government for all the rural Native villages, the industry attorneys argued. This way. the benefits would be spread throughout the state. including to Barrow, and all the Arctic villages.

Fred Paul had heard similar arguments from the timber industry in Southeast Alaska. In fact, once the industry got its way, the people of the villages had seen few of the benefits. Through the Alaska Federation of Natives and its president, Don Wright, the other villages of the unorganized borough expressed their support for the North Slope Borough.

Who could represent the people of the Arctic better? A local government seated in Barrow? Or, as the industry representatives were suggesting, a legislature based in Juneau - a legislature which at the time had not one person from the Arctic Slope serving in it? What was more accessible to a resident of Wainwright, the legislature in Juneau, or a borough government in Barrow?

These and many other points were debated: mil rates, sales tax, per capita income, per capita tax values - even whether or not Kaktovik's location on an island meant it was in or outside Alaska.

Gradually, it became evident the commissioners were leaning ever more in favor of the borough. Chairman Hedland had one major concern. He feared the first class status listed on the petition would provide the North Slope Borough with too much power. Hedland wanted to change the classification to second class. On the third day, he asked Paul if ASNA had any objections, and what action they might take if the petition were reduced to second class.

Paul responded that he was only an attorney. Only the petitioners themselves could answer Hedland's question. One of the petitioners was present, Paul noted. Charlie Edwardsen, Jr. Perhaps he could answer the question.

Apparently, the legal secretary recording the proceedings became a little overwhelmed with the flow of thc action. Substantial portions of the testimony are missing, and many state- ments are given without the speaker being identified. The official record shows Edwardsen responding with a simple, flat, four word statement. "It would be challenged."

Paul remembers a much more dramatic reaction from Etok. "NO!" Edwardsen shouted out in his booming voice while slamming his list into the table. "NO! BY GOD. NO!"

Hedland dropped the idea.

Finally, a motion was made to accept the petition. Hedland was still concerned with granting the North Slope Borough "all the powers of a first class city" over the entire North Slope. To appease his concern, an amendment was introduced and accepted to limit the Borough's powers just to those the law said a first class city must have. These three "mandatory powers" include educational, taxing, and planning and zoning powers.

Even so, it would be a simple matter for the Borough government to give itself more powers at a later date. A second amendment made it clear to all that the northern boundary of the Borough extended three miles offshore to the water limits of the State of Alaska, and included Barter Island.